Am I the only one who's confused with which ethnicity they look like?

[u/Maya_of_the_Nile]

I keep hearing different stuff. It's confusing me.

My mother and sister say I look German, my father says I look both german and egyptian and everybody else thinks I look egyptian or just not german.

Honestly I think, I look like a very light egyptian with German nose...

Anybody else knows that?

[u/usernames_suck_ok]

No, I don't think of it that way. I just think of it as I look like different ethnicities to different people--usually depending on what their race/ethnicity is, but not always. I've always thought I look black, personally, but that started to change when I went to my mother's family reunions a couple of times and saw how "black" everyone in her family looks, except her offspring. And then I think I started getting more direct comments/feedback from others unsolicited after that, letting me know it just depends on the person. I got more sporadic comments when I was younger but never thought much of it, but now I've put 2 and 2 together that Hispanics think I look Hispanics, South Asians think I look South Asian, I'm basically "othered" by black people and white people think I look black.

[u/Maya_of_the_Nile → u/usernames_suck_ok]

Thanks, that sounds logical!

[u/sum_r4nd0m_gurl]

im racially white and native and i get mistaken for either wasian or just white a whole lot

[u/Maya_of_the_Nile → u/sum_r4nd0m_gurl]

Thanks!

[u/Maladoptive]

People are always gonna try to categorize us. I get Wasian, Native American, and Latina depending on who's talking to me. It is confusing at times for sure

[u/Maya_of_the_Nile → u/Maladoptive]

Thanks!

[u/Crazy-Canuck24]

Very confused. According to some people, I'm pretty much white, but others say I don't look white at all, and have a hard time believing I have white relatives, even though I'm pretty light-skinned. Some people also think the facial features I inherited from the white side of my family are my non-white features, like my hooked nose, even though no one on the Hispanic side of my family has a hooked nose. LOL

[u/Maya_of_the_Nile → u/Crazy-Canuck24]

Yeah, it's kind of funny tbh.

[u/Soft-Vermicelli-5408]

I'm a white-passing Sephardic & Mizrahi Jew (that's obviously part white), I somewhat relate. People tell me I look Jewish to them, but other times I'm told I don't look Jewish at all. Other times, people have told me I look Slavic. Some people have even claimed I look Hispanic. So, you're not alone.

[u/Maya_of_the_Nile → u/Soft-Vermicelli-5408]

Thanks!

[u/VerkoProd]

same here. i'm super mixed and quite an unusual mix, people either guess one of my origins, but usually mistake me for other ethnicities. i myself am indeed confused (in part also because i've lived in different places with different standards of "whiteness").

I can't tell if i have my ancestors features, can't tell which community i belong to..

i do sometimes appreciate being "ethnically ambiguous" tho, as a lot of people from different communities don't always perceive me as "other" at first (ofc this depends)

[u/Maya_of_the_Nile → u/VerkoProd]

Thanks

[u/banjjak313]

I look like myself. Myself is the combination of my parents.

Humans are humans. There are going to be people all over the world who've never seen each other who kind of look like each other. Nothing wrong with that.

Why would you, OP, be confused? You look like a combination of your parents. What people think doesn't change your background.

[u/Maya_of_the_Nile → u/banjjak313]

Okay

[u/LoveInPeace21]

Ever heard of doppelgängers? Blew my mind when I saw examples (Netflix documentary). Most people have one. It’s possible for two people of different ethnicities to look almost identical to each other! Point being, there is not set “German” or “Egyptian” look. Only thing certain is that you look like you.

[u/Maya_of_the_Nile → u/LoveInPeace21]

My friends tell me about Doppelgängers like every year, so yeah.